`One Book' choice set in Austen neighborhood

September 09, 2005|By Erika Slife, Tribune staff reporter

"Pride and Prejudice," Jane Austen's probing, humorous examination of courtship and marriage in late-18th Century England, is the ninth selection for the One Book, One Chicago community reading initiative, city officials announced Thursday.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of wife," Austen begins the tale about the lively courtship between the spirited Elizabeth Bennet and haughty Fitzwilliam Darcy.

The couple's fictional romance has inspired a number of books and films, including "Bridget Jones's Diary," a 1998 novel by Helen Fielding and a 2001 movie starring Renee Zellweger; and a film adaptation of the original novel starring Keira Knightley, scheduled for release this fall.

"Pride and Prejudice" also is the first One Book, One Chicago novel authored by someone outside the U.S. since the citywide book club started in 2001, Mayor Richard Daley said.

"For the first non-American selection, we have selected one of the finest novels in the English language," Daley said at a news conference at the Harold Washington Library.

The British novel was selected this year for various reasons, the mayor said.

The founding of the Chicago Public Library was made possible by the donation of 8,000 books by Queen Victoria and other British leaders to replace those destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Daley said. Additionally, this year marks the 150th anniversary of the British Consulate in Chicago.

British Consul General Andrew Seaton called the novel one of the best-loved books in British literature.

"It was written nearly 200 years ago," Seaton said. "But if you just read it, read a bit of it, you'll see that it deals with issues that are just as relevant today as it was when it was written: The dangers of being too proud, the dangers of judging people on first impressions or judging people by appearances.

"It deals with relations between men and women. It deals with money and marriage--gender politics, as we call it nowadays."

The One Book program, she said, "highlights the importance of reading and encourages all Chicagoans to connect with each other around a great work of literature."

And it is the gathering of friends, neighbors and family that was the inspiration for many of Austen's works that capture human nature, such as "Sense and Sensibility" and "Emma." In "Pride and Prejudice," Austen writes, "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn."

A monthlong series of discussions and seminars are planned for October at the Washington Library and DePaul University, at neighborhood library book clubs and at local Borders Books and Music and Barnes & Noble stores.

Locations and times of the events and additional information about "Pride and Prejudice" in Chicago are available at a Chicago Public Library Web site on the book: www.chipublib.org/003cpl/oboc/pride/pride.html.